Through the vehicle of boxed assemblages and framed collages Betye Saar shares with the viewer her response as a Black woman artist to the world around her. Intimate in scale, each piece is an intricate patchwork of intentional devices. Contemplation and close scrutiny reveal compelling implications beyond what meets the eye. Like small votive objects, an aura of intensity and mystery lingers about these works.
Although the focus of her work is on the Black experience, her interests transcend solely racial considerations. Consistently recurrent are a wide variety of the symbols of the occult. Stars, crescents, beads, Tarot cards, fragments of hair and bone remind us of the ancient rites of early civilizations. Drawing inspiration from the political headlines of the last decade, Saar transforms present day derogatory images of Black America such as Aunt Jemima, Little Black Sambo and Jim Crow into urgent justifications for resistance to the dominant social order. Elsewhere Saar arranges items of nostalgia — faded photographs, pieces of lace, engraved lockets on chains, dried flowers and old dance cards — into purposefully sentimental allegories.
The strength of Saar’s work is to be found in the breadth and sensitivity of her vision. For the viewer, her curious and enigmatic amalgam of themes resolves into a heightened awareness of a collective consciousness.